Employees at Sheffield Platers work on the factory floor in San Diego in this October 2013 photo. / Lenny Ignelzi, AP

by Paul Davidson, USA TODAY

by Paul Davidson, USA TODAY

Bad weather helped the labor market close out 2013 in disappointing fashion as employers added just 74,000 jobs after several months of solid gains.

That's the smallest number of new jobs since January 2011. The unemployment rate fell from 7% to 6.7%, lowest since October 2008, the Labor Department said Friday.

The decline was mostly due to a drop of 347,000 in the labor force - the number of Americans working or looking for work.

Many economists say the poor showing was a one-month quirk that doesn't change the upward trajectory of both the economy and job market.

The median forecast of 37 economists surveyed by USA TODAY was for a gain of 205,000 jobs last month. Nearly a third raised their projections after payroll processor ADP's survey this week showed businesses adding 238,000 jobs in December, the most in 13 months. Other surveys of economists pointed to gains of 197,000 to 200,000.

The latest numbers mean the U.S. economy gained an average 182,000 jobs a month last year, the same as in 2012, at least temporarily undermining the view that the labor market has been picking up steam lately after four years of tepid growth. For the year, employers added 2.18 million jobs, slightly fewer than 2012's total of 2.19 million.

Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics says severe winter was the main culprit behind the disappointing job gains. In the Labor Department's survey of households, 273,000 people said they were not at work for some part of the month because of the weather, well above the 166,000 long-term average, Ashworth notes. A drop of 16,000 jobs in construction payrolls supports that view.

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, says the disappointing total is inconsistent with other recent economic reports that show both the manufacturing and service sectors expanding. He mostly attributes the weak jobs report to statistical aberrations in Labor's survey. Zandi expects the figure to be revised upward in coming months.

Still, noting the sharp labor force decline, Sinai says, "It's still a weak report." He partly attributes the small number of job additions and the drop in the labor force to ongoing mismatches between open positions in technology and other fast-growing fields, and the skills of unemployed workers.

The low payroll gains increase the risk that the Federal Reserve could leave its monthly bond purchases - which are intended to hold down interest rates and spur growth --unchanged at $75 billion this month after starting to taper the program in December. The Fed took that step amid signs that the economy was showing significant improvement. But Ashworth says the economy and job market are still strengthening, and he expects the Fed to reduce its purchases by another $10 billion at its Jan. 28-29 meeting.

Some other labor market indicators were mixed in December. The average workweek fell to 34.4 hours from 34.5 hours. Employers give existing workers more hours before adding new employees. Average hourly earnings rose 2 cents to $24.17.

A possible bright spot is that the number of temporary employees increased by a solid 40,000. Companies typically bring on contingent workers before adding to permanent staff.

A wider measure of joblessness called the underemployment rate - which includes part-time employees who prefer full-time jobs and those who've given up looking for work, as well as the unemployed - was unchanged at 13.1%.

Retailers led job gains with 55,000. Professional and business services added 19,000 and manufacturers added 9,000.

But payroll growth was weak across the board, with education and health services, a reliable source of job growth even through the recession, adding no jobs.

The economy and labor market have shown signs of ratcheting higher recently after 4½ years of mostly sluggish growth. Net job gains were over 200,000 from August through November, vs. 180,000 the first seven months of the year.

Manufacturing, the housing recovery and consumer spending all have picked up recently. A recent budget deal in Congress that tempers federal spending cuts has eased uncertainty among corporations, many of which are flush with cash, igniting plans for more capital spending. And a falling trade deficit has prompted many analysts to raise their estimates of economic growth last quarter to more than 3% at an annual rate.

Meanwhile, household wealth is near record levels, and consumers have shed much of the debt that hampered their spending after the Great Recession.